Flooring



Nov. 18, 1958 H, COHN 2,860,385

FLOORING Filed Feb. 27, 1956 FIG. I.

l2 l5 l8 INVENTOR HAROLD I. COHN BY mm ATTORNEYS United States Patent "T" FLOORING Harold J. Cohn, Los Angeles, Calif. Application February 27, 1956, Serial No. 567,958

3 Claims. (Cl. 20-8) This invention has to do with floor or wall finishing strips.

In providing flooring, for instance, for concrete-foundationed buildings, it is conventional practice first to cast the concrete foundation and, after it hardens sufficiently, narrow flooring strips are bonded to the concrete foundation as by a mastic adhesive. A difficulty which has long existed in such work is that it has not been possible to positively, firmly and uniformly bond the flooring strips to the foundation, and since the flooring strips usually contain some moisture and absorb moisture both from the mastic adhesive and from the foundation, they warp, pull and buckle away at points from their bond. Attempts have been made to solve this problem to roughening the bottom surface of the flooring strips, or by providing said surface with crossed or longitudinally extending spaced protuberances, but, while this has been of some help, it has not by .any means solved the problem.

It is a major object of my present invention, and by which I overcame this problem, to compose the floor of a plurality of interlocked flooring strips the bottom surface of each of which is interrupted by a medial longitudinal channel and in which I form, at the opposite sides of the channel, a pair of opposed upwardly and outwardly divergent or diagonal adhesive-receiving longitudinal slots. Additional and more subordinate objects will appear hereinafter.

While I shall point out in the accompanying claims the features of my invention which I believe to be new, I shall now, for the purpose of making my invention clearly understandable, describe one of its presently preferred embodiments, for which purpose I shall refer to the accompanying drawings wherein,

Fig. l is a cross-sectional view showing a plurality of my new strips bonded to a foundation;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of one of the strips;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of one of the strips; and

Fig. 5 is a side edge elevation of one of the strips.

While it is possible to make my finishing strips of wood, by proper woodworking machinery, it is my preference to make the strips of a sawdust and resin composition such as that described in my co-pending application, Serial No. 567,959, filed February 27, 1956.

In the drawing, the numeral 5 denotes a conventional concrete foundation, preferably having a roughened or unfinished top surface; denotes a conventional layer of mastic bonding material, and 12 denotes my new flooring strip.

Referring now to the construction of my strip 12, each strip comprises a body portion 15 having a planar top surface 16, having in one of its sides and in one of its ends a tongue groove 17 and having along its opposite side edge and end edge a tongue 18 to fit in the tongue grooves of contiguous strips. Such tongues and grooves are conven- 2,860,385 Patented Nog. 18,

2 tional and are used for the purpose of interlocking contiguous strips together.

What is novel about the construction of my flooring strip is that it has in its bottom surface a wide, medial longitudinal channel 20, the bottom wall 21 of which channel is inwardly offset, from the plane of the contiguous coplanar bottom surface portions 22, by a distance preferably of the order of ,5 inch. It is my preference to make the channel 20 of a width about one-third the width of the strip. At each side edge of the surface portion 21 and separating said surface portion from the contiguous surface portions 22, I provide an upwardly and outwardly disposed diagonal slot 25, the slots being oppositely disposed and relatively divergent. The sides of each of the slots are defined by beveling the side edge portion of the surface portion 21, as shown at 26, and undercutting the contiguous side edge portion of the bottom surface portion 22, as shown at 27, the bevels and undercuts being substantially parallel to each other.

The purpose of the beveled surface 26 is to force the mastic adhesive composition of layer 10 into the undercuts when the strip is pressed into the mastic so that, when the mastic layer hardens, the material in the slots 25, which material forms an integral part of the layer 10, provides a positive lock which prevents upward movement of the flooring strips away from the foundation, such as would otherwise occur as a result of moisture and resultant warping. The mastic filling the channel of each strip also positively prevents any lateral shifting of the strips relative to each other and relative to the foundation.

In use, after the concrete foundation is formed, the workman laying the floor spreads a layer 10 of adhesive over the top surface of the foundation and, while the adhesive is wet and somewhat fluid, a flooring strip 12 is laid over the adhesive and pressed downwardly. During this pressure, the adhesive will fill the slots 25, the beveled edges 26 insuring that the adhesive will flow against the undercut surfaces 27 and fill the slots. After the adhesive hardens, it is apparent that since an integral portion of the hardened mastic extends diagonally into the slots 25 and also fills the channel 20, the fiooringstrips are positively evenly and securely held in position against upward or lateral movement.

While I have illustrated and specifically described my strip as a flooring strip, it will be understood, of course, that it may be used also as a wall finishing strip. Also, while I have specifically mentioned a mastic adhesive, other adhesives or bonding agents may be used.

I claim:

1. In building construction, a finishing strip adapted to be adhered to a building foundation surface by an adhesive layer and comprising a rectangular body having a tongue along one of its side edge portions and one of its end edge portions having a tongue-receiving slot along one of its side edge portions and along one of its end edge portions, and having a bottom surface interrupted between its side edges by a pair of opposed inwardly diverging, transversely spaced, longitudinally extending slots; that portion of said bottom surface between said slots being inwardly olfset from the plane of the contiguous portions of said bottom surface.

2. In building construction, a foundation, a layer of mastic adhesive covering and adhered to said foundation, and a plurality of interlocked flooring strips, each of said strips having a bottom surface bonded to said adhesive, said bottom surface being interrupted by a pair of transversely spaced, longitudinally extending inwardly diverging slots into which said adhesive extends; that portion of said bottom surface between said. slots being inwardly offset from the plane of the contiguousportions of said bottom surface.

3. In building construction, a finishing strip adapted to be bonded to a foundation surface by an adhesive and comprising a fiat body whose bottom surface is interrupted by a longitudinally 'extending adhesive-receiving channel and by a pair of inwardly diverging longitudinally extending adhesive-receiving slots opening diagona'llyinto the respective sides of said channly-thzitportionof said body which defines the bottom ofsaid'channel between said slots being -inwardly-offset from the contiguous bottom surface portions and downwardly oifset from the bottoms of said slots wherebyto-force into said "slots a portion -of the adhesive entering said channel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Gray Aug. 29, 1933 Livezey Aug. 29, 1933 Weitzel May 14, 1935 Storm Apr. 14, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS France Jan. 25, 1912 Switzerland Nov. 15, 1936 Great Britain Sept. 28, 1938 

